h the glare from the ice and the physical
exertion. Be very careful where you step, and if you are wise follow in
the footsteps of others; do not undertake to lead, else one foot may be
trying to ascertain the depth of a quagmire and the other exploring a
fissure.

After an ascent of perhaps two and a half miles, which seem more like
ten, you will find yourself on the edge of a frozen sea, frozen, as it
were, while in the throes of a tempest, a bay of storm-tossed waves
solidified as by a signal; and this extends as far as the eye can reach
up into the mountains towards the north, and several miles across to the
hills upon the opposite shore. The ice is by no means clear or
brilliant, on the contrary, its color is milky and its formation
honey-combed, plastic, porous, and yielding to the tread; besides which
it is besmeared with sediment from mountain thaws which have traversed
its rifts, and disfigured by fallen logs and drift-wood.

I confess if I visited Muir Glacier a hundred times I should always
remain on deck and watch the pyrotechnics of the facade rather than
undergo the thankless fatigue of climbing to the top, which is
infinitely more laborious than the ascent of Vesuvius on foot through
the lava, or any work to be done on the trails of the Yosemite. To those
who are willing to undertake it, however, I suggest that when they have
ascended the first mile, which will bring them on a line with the top of
the wall of the glacier, they should look back at their little tiny
ship, floating like the "Maid of the Mist" beneath Niagara, to fully
realize the immense proportions of the glacier.

It is said that persons have been missed and never again found who made
this ascent, and I know that at least one case is authentic, that of a
young clergyman, who, straying away from his companions, was never again
seen, though the most diligent search was made for him by his friends
and the ship's crew. A slip into one of those crevasses which is covered
by a thin coat of ice, means to be precipitated in an instant to a depth
where no human aid can reach you. In fact, I would advise all who wish
to preserve the impression of Muir Glacier in its pure, idealized,
unsullied grandeur, to stay aboard and gaze on its beautiful face.

It is a Persian custom, after plucking the fruit, to tear it asunder in
the middle, hand the sunny side to the friend and throw the other half
away, the best portion being the only part good enough fo